Northern political economy

Political economy is the study of connections between power, wealth and well-being. Current climatic, environmental and socio-economic changes in the Arctic and related consequences for peoples, communities and livelihoods in the region as well as ways to mitigate and adapt to these changes make political economy an important, topical perspective for social-science based research.

The research focus is spatially situated, “Northern”, that is emerging from everyday life in the European Arctic, but interacting with socioeconomic, environmental and political developments outside the region. As a whole, the research group is engaged in research that critically investigates social and political dimensions of development in the Arctic.

Our research

Recent publications by the research group members include Hanna Lempinen’s book “Arctic energy and social sustainability” (Palgrave 2018) and a book by Marjo Lindroth and Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen “Global politics and its violent care of indigeneity: Sequels to colonialism” (Palgrave 2018).

Our recent book “Resources, social and cultural sustainabilities in the Arctic" (M. Tennberg, H. Lempinen & S. Pirnes, eds., Routledge 2020) presents well our diverse research. The book represents well topics that the group explores including political dimensions of indigenous identities, energy and climate politics, urbanism, and knowledge produced in and on the region. The group also pursues research about local perspectives on EU programs and regional policies in the Arctic, Russia’s arctic politics, corporate social responsibility in the Barents region, and about participation in megaprojects.

The research group

The research group is organized as a collaborative network of researchers working in the Arctic Centre and in different faculties of the University of Lapland and University of Eastern Finland. The group is led by research professor Monica Tennberg, and the members are: university researcher Tanja Joona, post-doc researcher Hannah Strauss-Mazzullo, post-doc researcher Marjo Lindroth, university researcher Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen (Faculty of Education, University of Lapland ), university lecturer Hanna Lempinen (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland), junior researcher Joonas Vola (Doctoral program for culture-based service design, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lapland), doctoral candidate Adrian Braun (University of Eastern Finland), doctoral candidate Paula Tulppo, doctoral candidate Susanna Pirnes and doctoral candidate Nazezhda Kharlampieva.

The newest member of our NPE team is Associate Professor Nadezhda Kharlampieva from Russia. She has a PhD in history and she is a researcher of World politics at the Department of Saint-Petersburg State University and senior researcher of the Arctic and Antarctic research institute Russian Federation (AARI).

After one and a half years of teaching at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lapland, senior researcher Hanna Lempinen has returned to the NPE team. In this blog post, she tells a bit more about her new research project and about the peculiar question of peat energy in Finland.